Jesu Meine Freude: A cultural reception analysis of Romans 8

Romans 8:1-11 ; Contains German text and trans of motet, Jesus Meine Freude by J S Bach. Cultural reception of the Gospel, edt by T Hegedus

Living coal : Robert Boyle, John Holland, and the bodily passages of chimney sweep literature, 1684-1824

This project attends to a body of literature that registers the extraordinary and tragic effects of chimneys infused with living coal upon young chimney sweeps. In so doing, I show how writers, especially John Holland, registered the dynamic interrelationship between chimney sweeps, chimneys and coal as bodily passages. To assist our imagining of these bodily passages, I adapt Edward Casey’s logic of place and Stacy Alaimo’s concept of “transcorporeality” in order to make sense of the material exchange between the child-sweeps and the lively matter of and within the chimneys. Together, place-thinking and transcorporeality help us see the way in which dwelling within toxic places might involve processes of what Rob Nixon has called “slow violence,” a violence often culminating in the spectacular erasure of bodies. In turn, I hope to contribute to a fuller understanding of what it means to live firmly emplaced in the environment in which we dwell.Englis

Building for the Future: Worldview Foundations of Sand and Rock

The good news of Jesus Christ is a message about the revelation and accomplishment of the goal of history-the restoration of the entire creation from sin. Thus, the Christian faith is not a religion that can be slotted into the private domain of human life. Rather it is a comprehensive worldview embodied by the Christian community. The Christian community has always had to embody the gospel of the kingdom in the context of a culture that holds other comprehensive beliefs. Three cultural contexts can be discerned in church history, all of which bring possibilities for and dangers to a faithful witness to the gospel. Sometimes the cultural setting is hostile to the Christian faith, as in the case of the early church and the church under Communism. While Christians may be limited in contributing to the cultural development of society, they must embody an alternative worldview that challenges the reigning public doctrine, even if it means suffering. Sometimes the cultural arrangement will favour the Christian church, giving it an established position. In this situation, Christians must use the position offered to shape the culture according to the light of the gospel, remaining critical of elements of culture out of keeping with the kingdom and modelling the gentle and uncoercive manner of Jesus the Servant-King. Sometimes Christians will find themselves in a culture that ignores the Christian faith and relegates it to the private realm. Then Christians must refuse to reduce the gospel to a private religious teaching, and seek ways to embody the truth of the gospel for public life. The church in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union has seen all three of these cultural contexts. The paper concludes with two comments for the church in Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine, and other countries of the former Soviet Union. First, there may be a parallel situation between the collapse of the Roman empire and the collapse of Communism. Both offer the opportunity for the Christian worldview to fill the vacuum created by the crumbling of the reigning cultural doctrine. Second, the growing presence of capitalistic liberalism threatens the gospel as public truth about human society and culture. The gospel and liberal, democratic capitalism offer two different stories about the world that demands a commitment in faith. Which worldview will provide a foundation for the future of Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe? Will it be the rock of the gospel of Jesus Christ or the sand of a human hope for the future

RBC barcoding allows for the study of erythrocyte population dynamics and P. falciparum merozoite invasion.

Plasmodium falciparum invasion of host erythrocytes is essential for the propagation of the blood stage of malaria infection. Additionally, the brief extracellular merozoite stage of P. falciparum represents one of the rare windows during which the parasite is directly exposed to the host immune response. Therefore, efficient invasion of the host erythrocyte is necessary not only for productive host erythrocyte infection, but also for evasion of the immune response. Host traits, such as hemoglobinopathies and differential expression of erythrocyte invasion ligands, can protect individuals from malaria by impeding parasite erythrocyte invasion. Here we combine RBC barcoding with flow cytometry to study P. falciparum invasion. This novel high-throughput method allows for the (i) direct comparison of P. falciparum invasion into different erythrocyte populations and (ii) assessment of the impact of changing erythrocyte population dynamics on P. falciparum invasion

Efficacy and safety of hepcidin-based screen-and-treat approaches using two different doses versus a standard universal approach of iron supplementation in young children in rural Gambia: a double-blind randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Iron deficiency prevalence rates frequently exceed 50 % in young children in low-income countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended universal supplementation of young children where anaemia rates are >40 %. However, large randomized trials have revealed that provision of iron to young children caused serious adverse effects because iron powerfully promotes microbial growth. Hepcidin - the master regulator of iron metabolism that integrates signals of infection and iron deficiency - offers the possibility of new solutions to diagnose and combat global iron deficiency. We aim to evaluate a hepcidin-screening-based iron supplementation intervention using hepcidin cut-offs designed to indicate that an individual requires iron, is safe to receive it and will absorb it. METHODS: The study is a proof-of-concept, three-arm, double blind, randomised controlled, prospective, parallel-group non-inferiority trial. Children will be randomised to receive, for a duration of 12 weeks, one of three multiple micronutrient powders (MNP) containing: A) 12 mg iron daily; B) 12 mg or 0 mg iron daily based on a weekly hepcidin screening indicating if iron can be given for the next seven days or not; C) 6 mg or 0 mg iron daily based on a weekly hepcidin screening indicating if iron can be given for the next seven days or not. The inclusion criteria are age 6-23 months, haemoglobin (Hb) concentration between 7 and 11 g/dL, z-scores for Height-for-Age, Weight-for-Age and Weight-for-Height > -3 SD and free of malaria. Hb concentration at 12 weeks will be used to test whether the screen-and-treat approaches are non-inferior to universal supplementation. Safety will be assessed using caregiver reports of infections, in vitro bacterial and P. falciparum growth assays and by determining the changes in the gut microbiota during the study period. DISCUSSION: A screen-and-treat approach using hepcidin has the potential to make iron administration safer in areas with widespread infections. If this proof-of-concept study shows promising results the development of a point-of-care diagnostic test will be the next step. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN07210906 , 07/16/2014